TALES UNFOLD AT FEST--AT TIMES WITHOUT WORDS

On a recent hot summer's day in Spring Grove, Peter Cook created a masterpiece painted with imagination and inspired by his own life experiences. He was an artist telling a story.

They were whimsical tales--part truth, part fiction-- all woven without words.

Cook, a deaf performing artist from Chicago whose work is part pantomime, part acting and part American Sign Language, was a featured storyteller at the recently held 14th Annual Illinois Storytelling Festival.

The festival took the thousands of people who came out to this year's event back to another era, when stories were personal and direct, a time before film and television relegated stories to light rays on illuminated screens.

"The reason television is so popular is that we all need stories," said Jim May, an organizer of the event, "but missing is the imagination and a sense of personal contact."

Theresa Wright of Elgin said she looks forward to attending the festival every year.

"It gets better all the time," Wright said.

The festival, started in 1984 by May and his cousin, Bob May of Spring Grove, currently draws more than 5,000 people to Village Park in Spring Grove.

This year, about 40 storytellers from across the nation took part.

They included Donald Davis, who has written eight books on storytelling and was recently selected by the National Storytelling Association to join its Circle of Excellence; Olga Loya, a bilingual performer from East Los Angeles, who tells stories from Mexico and Latin America; Janice Harrington, whose specialty is African-American folklore; and Johnny Moses, a Native American storyteller who is fluent in 11 languages.

Jim May himself put Spring Grove on the literary map with the publication of "The Farm on Nippersink Creek," a collection of stories about growing up, which contains his Chicago Emmy-award-winning story, "A Bell for Shorty."

Twelve languages were represented, including sign language, and signing interpreters worked with storytellers throughout the festival.

All types of literary and oral traditions unfolded, including legends, folk tales, fables and fairy tales, as well as local histories and life experiences.

Besides storytelling, events included a Liar's Tent, Grand Stories from Grandparents and Grandchildren, participation stories and games and an open microphone.

New this year were Barn Stories to celebrate McHenry County's Year of the Barn, Havdalah stories from the Jewish tradition and Cajun dancing. Master classes in storytelling and other workshops also were offered.

The storytelling revival began in the early 1970s, and the movement has, appropriately, largely grown by word of mouth. Today, hundreds of festivals are held each year across the nation.

May said the power of the spoken word comes not only from the tale itself, but from how it relates to the lives of those listening and the storytellers themselves--whether the stories are taken from great myths or legends handed down through the generations or from the storyteller's own personal experiences.